ASH Daily News for 22 September 2016

Lancashire: Council chiefs agree action in bid to persuade Bury smokers to stub it out

Imperial Brands downgraded ahead of trading update

Children’s willpower linked to smoking throughout life

Canada: Toronto businesses may be required to clean up cigarette butts

USA: Would California’s proposed tobacco tax hike reduce smoking?

Lancashire: Council chiefs agree action in bid to persuade Bury smokers to stub it out

Councillors in Bury, Lancashire have committed to working to reduce the harm caused by smoking. They voted to follow in the footsteps of more than 80 other local authorities by signing the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control.

Latest figures show that 19.5 per cent of Bury residents smoke — roughly 35,000 of people and one of the highest numbers in the North West.

The Declaration commits the council to lead anti-smoking campaigns, help people quit smoking, stop youngsters taking up the habit and protect families from the effects of second-hand smoke.

Imperial Brands’ stockbroker, Credit Suisse has downgraded the company a week before its trading update is due to be released.

The company, formerly called Imperial Tobacco, was among the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 yesterday, sliding 78p to £39.29, after Credit Suisse, said that it expected next year to be a difficult one for the Bristol-based company and cut the stock to “neutral”.

The Swiss broker said that the deep-discount segment of the market was growing rapidly in the UK, lowering the average selling price, and that this process was likely to quicken when tighter regulation comes in from May, including standardised packs.

Credit Suisse also forecast that the three other major companies: Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco would increasingly move some of their premium and mainstream brands downmarket, “where Imperial is currently overrepresented”.

Scientists from the University of Stirling have discovered a link between childhood self-control and smoking habits across life.

Behavioural Scientist Dr Michael Daly and his team examined 21,000 people from the UK tracked over four decades. The researchers found children with low self-control by age 10/11 were more likely to take up smoking in adolescence and had substantially higher rates of smoking as adults, even decades later aged 55.

Dr Daly explained: “We first saw that children with low self-control were twice as likely to smoke as adults compared to their more self-controlled peers. We then examined alternative explanations like differences in parental smoking, intelligence, and social class. Even after taking these factors into account, we found that low self-control, measured early in life before smoking is initiated, predicts a substantially raised risk of smoking throughout adulthood.”

Additionally, the study found that children who lacked self-control tended to go on to smoke more cigarettes, had greater difficulty quitting smoking and relapsed to smoking at higher rates when they did manage to quit.

Canada: Toronto businesses may be required to clean up cigarette butts

Toronto City’s Licensing and Standards Committee has voted to change the bylaws around clearing litter from boulevards, sidewalks, curbs and gutters directly around business owners’ properties at their expense. If the measure is approved by council in early October, business owners would be required to clean up litter, including cigarette butts, they didn’t have to previously clean.

Committee chairman Cesar Palacio said he believes the bylaw should target the main offenders: clubs, bars and restaurants.

While California has the second lowest smoking rate in the US at 12% currently it also has
one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the country: 87 cents per pack. If voters pass Proposition 56 in November, the tax would go up to $2.87 a pack. Backers of the measure, including the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, hope to hit people hard enough in the wallet that they quit smoking, or never start.

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